Just salary cap clubs. If all the greedy bastards can’t accept that then let them piss off to China. If clubs want to spruke half a million a week on 1 player, then fair enough - they will have to have the rest of the team filled with 1st year scholars. I very much doubt they would do it for long. People are still going to go to matches or watch it on tv as long as it remains a competitive game. Maybe now is the time to have. A euro league for all those greedy players and teams. Should end up with about a dozen teams from around Europe with rich enough owners to compete, and then the remaining teams can get back to “proper” football where fans can relate to their teams and have a fully competitive league.
On a separate note, wouldn’t it be a great idea if it was compulsory for 10% of the sky tv money for each club to be set aside to reduce admission prices. Start off by reducing any student or pensioner admission to a fiver and then go from there.
Salary caps worked in the US, minimum amount of academy players in the 1st team squad, loans restrictions, English players.
Its built on sand ie tv markets and that is fashionable, we’re not even in the top 3 Leagues for quality all the way through.
La Liga
Serie A
Bundesliga
Are all better and don’t get me started on our national team and the players we produce, modern football is absolutely shite and a viewing platform for modern life in general, style over substance, notice they’re now looking at (I said this ages ago and people on here disagreed and thought St Marys was the 1960’s Maracana) going back to a soft form of terracing (quite right as well), the atmosphere is gash.
Style of substance, and the style is shit as well, we can’t say we’re the best so we’re the most exciting, how bollocks is that?
The Fareham Mens Sunday League is exciting shall we get Stelling and the fucking lads down there doing a stint?
Modern football is so poor to what it used to be I genuinely feel for the ones who only know St Marys, what a crock of shit that place is, full of the day experience scarfers and whoppers.
The only thing wrong with the Neymar deal is that it is nothing to do with football and everything to do with politics.
PGS fans aren’t paying for it. That has to be stopped.
And as for the balance between sport & charity - sorry people choose where to put their money so fans are to blame not authorities. The digital world needs content. Sport is still a cheap option
Sport isn’t a cheap option, if that were the case all nations would have an EPL or bid for players, I’m living in a nation getting poorer yet the prices of attending “our” game go up whilst we pander to foreign markets, the money doesn’t even stay in the game.
‘Southampton is nothing but a selling club that can’t keep hold of their best players’, laughed Liverpool.
Shortly before they were unable to hold onto their own best player who was heading to Barcelona, because they too had been unable to hold onto their best player.
Modern Society fuelled by a Commercial Media that values Popularist Culture above Culture. It has grown to service the “want it now generation” and the want it now generation, gets it.
There’s no way back, no matter how much we bleat, wring our hands, cry, stamp our feet, yell and tell everyone it has to change. The power in Football, as we all know isn’t FIFA or any of the other “governing” bodies who laughingly “make the rules” and “regulate” they are toothless puppets who stand by and watch it all happen.
The breakaway European Super League is bound to happen…“Popularist Culture” demands it…ever “upwards to the depths of depravity”…can’t wait for them to go.
I sincerely hope it does, they’ll have to fill the gaps in of empty stadiums though, I really do want a breakaway, the leading franchises only use us to get into the Champions League anyway, ironic as you don’t have to win to get in.
They are related in that on one hand we hear that the money being generated by football is a good thing because it filters down to the “grass roots level.” Yet on the other hand the actual grass roots are literally being sold off because schools need to sell their playing fields. Fewer kids are playing football at school which cannot be a good thing. The money isnt trickling down as it should. It is going to pay inflated transfer fees and wages. Clubs could chose to cut ticket prices, or to support their local schools financially so that they can keep their playing fields. They could do a hell of a lot more to support local communities keep and maintain their sporting facilities, but instead they have got sucked into giving the vast majority of their monies to the players.
Chutters, no disrespect mate but you could do with taking some of your own advice when it comes to debating. Debating isn’t shouting people down who disagree with you or accusing people of having vendettas when they pick you up on something, regardless of how ‘passionate’ you are.
If part of the deal to win the broadcasting of football rights was that a percentage of the money had to be spent on the infracstructure they wouldnt have a choice. Ok. Utopia and it isnt going to happen. But you get my drift. My basic point is that society itself is a nonsense. As has been said, people have a choice. They can take out a SKY subscition, buy a season ticket and or buy a stupidly priced replica kit. They can give money to charity. They go do either. They can do both if they want or can afford it. But we know that people dont make the choices that are going to benefit the wider society when, in the main, they can suit themselves. That is why we have a tax system and elect a Government to run that side of things for us. People need to start voting with their feet (or wallets). Sadly the majority still think that institutions like the NHS need to be funded by the magic money tree whilst they are happy to pour money into Premiership football. Give them a choice and see what happens. Give up your SKY subscription and fund the NHS. I think we know what most would chose. You only have to read the posts on Fiverweb to see that many of our own supporters get upset every summer because we arent spending millions of pounds on new players. Its like fags, booze and drugs. We know these things arent good for us but they fill a huge void and they make us feel happy for a while. So it is with football and it is the reason why most people will continue to put a lot of their hard earned cash into the SKY coffers rather than support things like the NHS. Sadly it is part and parcel of the world we live in. I agree with Chutter’s sentiments, but our society has made its choice.
Sorry, do not agree in this case. Have a proper read. Pap is not able to diferentiate between putting the amount in Context and Comparison… I am not trying to prevent debate, that was the purpose of the thread, but I repeatedly tried to explain to Pap that using (begining with my response to Goaty) the ‘bigger more imporatnt issues’ as comparison would just make this debate pointless, as football is never going to a big issue when you compare the bigger more important problems… but that this discussion was about the issue in football… not geo -political and social challenges… KRG suggests that why should we have this discussion now when its always been so… a business so what should we expect and why is it suddenly an agenda item… Its simply because its topical and the amount ismore than double the previous… I use 1985 as an example as at that time, the averge transfer was around 500k maybe, with average wages around the 150k per YEAR… relativly speaking we have gone way beyond those levels - exponentially in the last 30+ years and so teh morality of it becomes a bigger question (IMHO)
In addition, I shouted no one down, but Pap was being his usual patronising self, twisting my words and without offereing a POV on the question at hand… Which is pretty typical of his approach when he has fallen out with someone…you can see that in the style offered to various posters on here (those that are left) who have had differences of opinion with him.
Please do not accuse me of shouting anyone down, when i have done nothing of the sort… but I aint going to just meekly accept the patronising rubbish.
If folks have an issue with the thread theme, maybe suggesting its impossible to discuss this outside a broader scope of issues, that is a fair question, but one that has not been posed nor one I agree with… but that is not what Pap was suggesting.
I have to admit, when things stop being fun, its not really worth the effort…as others have concluded. All seems to get a bit cliquey and sychophantic when there is a difference of opinion which then seems to drag on into other discussion.
I think there is not much to debate in the original assertion/question: “Neymar Deal - Obscene, immoral and all that is wrong with football?”
Maybe it’s not ALL that is wrong with football but otherwise I can’t see much else to ‘debate’. It’s an obscene amount of money. Is it immoral? well I suppose that’s open to definition and subjectivity.
However, there is obviously a whole world of nonsense to be had by ripping into each other at every opportunity.
The question was more about how its becoming impossible to reconcile being a fan when this level of obscene money is now ‘common place’ … as to ripping into each other, I make no apologies in this case, as I find that nothing I can say does not get twisted by Pap to try and undermine an argument without actually presenting a POV… it used to be called ‘going off topic’’… I suspect we have reached an impasse, no vitual reconciliation possible. Needless to say niether one of us is that bothered about it apart from it creating 'awkward moments…
Off top of my head, I spose in money terms football is prob bout the 8th or 9th biggest entertainment industry on Erf, and the sums bandied about are commensurate with that.
What would make you happy? Maybe if it was bit less successful, and only say 15th biggest entertainment industry, so that there would be less money washing around? Or maybe if it wasn’t an Industry at all - it could be like a Religion or something?
